Utah (11-14 / 3-10) at Colorado (17-8 / 7-6)
The Buffs have won six of eight but one of those losses was to Utah. Another defeat at the hands of the Utes could drive a stake through Colorado’s at-large bid chances.

Stanford (15-11 / 6-7) at OSU (13-13 / 3-10)
The Cardinal was starting to feel good about itself with four wins in five games including an upset of Oregon but then…swept at home by the L.A. schools. Where’s David Shaw when you need him?

Sat. Feb. 23

WSU at ARIZONA
Woe is Wazzu, as the Cougars have lost six straight to fall into sole possession of last place. Where’s Mike Leach… Oh, right. Never mind.

Cal at OSU
The Bears are now the only team to have beaten Oregon, Arizona and UCLA this year. Yet they couldn’t get to 65 points against Washington, Stanford or ASU.

Stanford at Oregon
Lose three then win three for the Ducks. Arizona fans would gladly take a lose-one from Oregon at any point.

Washington at ASU
The Sun Devils are 3-0 in overtime this year. I will not make an overtime joke about the Sun Devil Angels.

Sun. Feb. 24

UCLA (19-7 / 9-4) at USC (12-14 / 7-6)
USC (winner of four out of five) has been playing better than UCLA (split last eight) and the Trojans won the first meeting. So I’m going to predict the Bruins win this game by a dozen.

* * *

Oregon got the big road sweep in the state of Washington last week to reclaim first place and put pressure on Arizona and UCLA. Here’s an updated look at the conference race:

The good news is the Wildcats are home this week. The bad news is the UA hasn’t swept a home weekend since the Colorado/Utah games.

What’s more likely, Arizona winning the next five or Oregon losing twice? The odds of the latter go way up if the Attack of the Crabbe Monster can take down the Ducks on Thursday.

When the Wildcats and Huskies met in January it was a 57-53 slopfest where the teams combined to make just four of 30 attempts (13%) from the beyond the arc. That’s encouraging for Arizona’s ailing 3-point defense but not a good sign for Mark Lyons after hitting 1-of-9 (really 2-for-10) from long distance against Utah. The Cats would be advised to take the ball to the hoop to get a few a shots to fall early.